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Hi and welcome to another edition of in the studio. I'm your host Scott Laws and with me today is Danny Tomasolo. How you doing Danny?
Good Scott, how are you?
All right. And we're going to be talking today about the Davis Music Festival, an annual festival that has just started this year, and hopefully will go
continue on for a long time.
Great. So, the festival just happened.
Yes. And it was a great success. Absolutely. Yeah, the support has been
overwhelming. So, yeah, it was great to get a first year under our belt.
Good. Any
hiccups, any success stories you want to talk about? Well,
I'd say from a success story,
really the folks that were interested from the get-go and the volunteers and
the committee
people, really that's how this whole thing happened. I just
connected dots. So, as far as
the bands themselves, hearing about it,
contacting me with interest, you know,
finding bands really wasn't that hard. A lot of people, the first thing you'd say
is, hey, there's a music festival that I'm gonna try to put together. People would say,
oh, I got a great band for you.
And so, that... There's no shortage there for... No shortage of bands, but
what we were going for were bands that would sell tickets on their own
to a show, even if it was a couple dozen
people paying five bucks to go see a house show. That was sort of the minimum
criteria
on bands. So, you know, just having a friend that has a band in a garage, there's
lots of those. So, we wanted to have talent and then
the sound people was also the real huge win there.
Some very experienced sound folks that
were very generous with their rates
for this first year and hoping to grow with us too.
Everybody likes the vision and wanted to grow, so
I'd say those are definitely the successes. Great. So, Davis is a...
You know, some people mentioned that Davis doesn't have a lot of
live music and certainly not an annual music festival that you were putting
together.
Where do you... Did you come up with this idea on your own?
I mean, did you get people coming in and telling you, hey...
How it started was, my friend... I just like going to shows. I don't play any music.
I'm not in the business. It's just a hobby of mine to go to see live music. I
think it's really one of the last few
moments in time that you capture with the artists
live. It's there and you're with other...
The camaraderie is great with other fans. So, my friend
who I used to go to shows with a lot and still do occasionally,
he said, hey, I'm putting on a golf tournament.
It's a Blue and White Foundation golf tournament called Day on the Green and
I'd like to have an after party with a concert, invite a few bands out, have a
mobile stage and let people have a
totally separate event, separate ticket and have people come enjoy the music after.
And they still do it.
It's in their third year, it was just recently. So,
it was a success but it wasn't really focused on
music and the fundraising wasn't particular to music art programs
and it was just something that I thought, you know, we should have a dedicated day
for this and maybe bring it downtown.
Originally, I had Central Park rented
and in this first year I was a little nervous about keeping Central Park. It
was going to take a lot
to pull that off and I didn't know how many people would show up. So,
now we're definitely gonna look at that for 2012.
But the... so,
point being, when I start talking to people about
the vision of what if we brought it downtown, one of the first people that
was really helpful was Kevin Wan of Sophia's
Thai Kitchen. He said, you know, it's a great idea.
I think people tried it before. It hasn't worked for
various reasons but I encourage you and if you do it, I'll help. So,
you know, that was sort of response from... yeah, and I got that from
Armadillo Music was next and I go in there a lot because I run off of space downtown
and go in quite a bit and those guys were, you know, yeah, let's talk about it.
And then my wife had worked on the Downtown Business Association so she had
contacts to talk with.
Without a doubt, Bob Bowen was critical in getting his
input. In fact, it was August of last year that I
first started talking with him. He was the first person. And what does he do?
He's our, I think it's Public Relations Manager or City. He does...
He puts on the engine. He's the coordinator for the City. Yeah, you know,
the Tour of California stops that come here and a lot of
events. He basically knows all the public events that are happening.
Okay. And so he had some great advice about starting small,
doing it well, and not trying to overshoot.
Not trying to make it bigger than picking on too much and...
Taking on too much, yeah. So that was key.
And I'd say the other folks that were really helpful were
the Davis Dirt Gals, the... I call them the Dirty Dames, but they're, yeah, they're
the founders of that. It's a free newspaper publication that
that lists all the art music happenings on a monthly basis.
And they... And it's free. Free newspaper. They distribute it all downtown.
I think something like 4,000 copies a month. And they
put out the Festival Guide map. And were just really helpful
all along the way. Well, and that's actually where I first learned about
the festival was from the Davis Dirt. Oh, great.
So I opened it up and yeah, I mean, I was excited to see that
something like that was gonna happen because kind of what I was mentioning
before was, you know, some people just don't...
You know, know that there's some kind of live music.
Right. Some, you know, Davis is full of musicians.
Right. You know, and we have various places, you know,
the farmers market. And of course, Kevin at Sophia's does a great job
curating and bringing bands from all over the country,
you know, on these, you know, self-supporting bands, bands that are out there
putting out their own music and sort of this real grassroots thing. And he's really...
They do a great job at that. So having him on your...
Yeah, having his support was huge. And you know what? The other thing that he does
that's...that was what I was interested in is not just
showcasing local talent, because you're right, we have a lot of great local musicians.
But if it's going to be an ongoing thing, it shouldn't just be Davis musicians.
In fact, that's one flaw in the title of Davis Music Fest is that people think,
well, you know, so these are all local bands. Well, no, it's also to showcase
how many music fans there are in Davis and how...
Look, we're right in between San Francisco and Portland.
People literally drive past us on these tours. And to your point, you know,
a lot of them are just do-it-yourself tours and, you know, why not have more
stops for those bands that could do very well here?
So Kevin does a great job of seeing that kind of talent.
And so, yeah, that's why I got to know him, because I just would go to shows a lot.
And I'd see other people, you know, out and they were all, like I said, very supportive.
Let's talk about that as far as...
Obviously, the volunteering and the community and the venues getting behind you
is definitely helps a lot.
Yeah.
And so let's talk a little bit about the volunteer aspect of this.
Like, this festival went off, I'm assuming, very well because a lot of people
were willing to help you. They wanted to see it to come to fruition
because they were live music supporters or just music enthusiasts to begin with.
And so let's talk about that.
So the people that have contacted me, and by the way, you know,
for anybody that's interested as we grow, just, you know, info at davismusicfest.com
and say, hey, that was a fun time. How do I participate in the future?
Maybe even some feedback?
Feedback, absolutely welcome feedback and ideas and, you know, we have a Facebook page.
So people post things and suggestions and that's great.
But the, you know, yeah, the specific volunteers that stepped up, again,
a lot of it stemmed from Armadillo.
My friend Landon at the Enterprise and Kat Jones at Armadillo now,
it used to be Paychip. So, yeah, they were critical.
It's going to be embarrassing if I try to name a bunch.
But the point is they, yeah, they would just, you know, you'd say,
hey, I think we need to do this or let's meet on a regular basis.
And we started meeting a lot.
And that's, I think, one of the things that we stopped doing,
it's good to point out if anybody's trying to pull off an event like this,
is you can have a huge meeting and you can talk about all these things.
And it's just more like a brainstorming session.
And we try and get down to the nitty gritty.
What really is what I found is just have committees based on venue.
So as far as growing, what I'd like to do is just and what we did this year is
I have a show runner, they're connected with sound and they're connected with
the three or four bands that are playing there.
If for a specific venue for a specific venue.
So you're right to your point, people were great on the on the committee side,
but also without the venues, it wouldn't really work.
So this is, you know, this is a model that's a South by Southwest style.
So we need the venues.
So Little Prague and Delta, Venus and Sophia's were great about, hey, this is,
you know, this is your place for the day kind of thing.
We said we'll provide sound, we'll provide the bands and we'll provide show runners.
And they said, great, we'll just run our normal course of business.
So if we are going to grow and add other venues, I mean, the vision down the road,
I don't know how many years, but could be, hey, we close off a street.
You have a stage at one side or we just have, you know, people turn the barbershop
into a venue that day and you throw, you know, a couple of people in there.
So there could be that type of a thing like they do in Austin.
But again, we're baby steps. So we'll see.
But in order to really grow, it does take that, you know, OK,
this person is going to be in charge of this.
It's like having that same show that night. Yeah.
And then you get into discussions on, do you want to have the same genre
in that one venue or do you want to have different genres and people are bouncing around?
I mean, the idea is to be able to get to and from and go see different bands.
So the schedule, as you've seen, is, you know, they overlap.
So you have to make a decision.
There are 20 bands and or and or DJs and you can't see them all,
you know, their entire sets, but you can run around pretty good and you can catch a lot.
So yeah. So if you have the means to get into all the venues and yeah,
each person can sort of sort of map their way through the eight hours. Right.
You know, starting from, oh, I want to see this right particular band
or this particular act. And yeah. And then they know.
And it's so great today with being able to, you know, just click a link to a dedicated web page.
You hear some streaming music, decide, OK, yeah, that sounds right.
My wheelhouse. I'm going to go check that out.
Or maybe, you know, this is half I like half this set,
but I'm going to zip over there and catch some of the other one.
So, yeah, having everything in proximity is also pretty critical for that.
But I think we could spread out, you know, with guys like Davis Petty Cab cruising around,
taking people around, you know, you could definitely you could definitely do that.
So, you know, and that's within walking distance or bike riding distance is kind of the goal there, too,
with obviously Davis being such a bike centric. Yeah, it's very pedestrian.
And I mean, even with the buses and like you said, the what do they call them? Petty taxis?
Petty cab. Petty cab. Yeah.
That's an easy way to get around and easy way to get around.
Yeah. And they're they're supportive.
So and that's the thing. It's, you know, everybody has been.
That sounds like a great idea. Great idea. We're on board.
So it's hopefully it will continue to be successful and, you know, just growth.
And we may walk still. I don't want to run too much.
But, you know, concentrate on keeping it, you know, do it well and doing it well and
leaving people wanting more. Right.
And I think the key is to about having non not just local bands is, you know,
you got to get people out of their houses, even if they know the local music scene.
You know, why would I go pay, you know, to see a bunch of different venues when I know
all these bands, I can see them, you know, another time in the year.
So bring some some artists in from out of town for them, for the for the music
community, and then also try and, you know, bridge a gap between us and Sacramento,
because Sacramento's got a lot of talent out there and, you know, great venues and
good shows to be had. And they're so close. So. Yeah.
Well, I know when I look at attending a particular festival or, you know,
if it's somewhere local that I'm from, you always want those.
You want to try to get a couple of staple artists that are that do have a local draw,
you know, that that people will say, well, I'm going to go there.
And but then, like you said, it is a good thing to have people that are from
somewhere else in the country. Yes. Or somewhere else in the world.
Right. Who actually, you know, there's lots of artists and lots of bands that are
doing it themselves that are from other parts of the world. And I just think it's
so it's so isn't it just it's pretty admirable to just pick up everything you
have, get in a car and drive from spot to spot to spot to spot to spot,
not knowing, you know, and just living on nothing because you just love music
and you want to play and you want to perform for people.
So that's pretty. Trying to make a little bit of cash and eat along the way.
Right. Gas money. Yeah.
And just say, hey, we pulled off a tour.
If you if a band can go to a gig and get get some food from the venue and some gas
money to get to the next gig, that's probably a successful, right?
Successful. Maybe sell a CD or something.
Yeah, exactly. Or get somebody on the mailing list or whatever.
Yeah. So let's talk about the bands.
Are you excited to see or who was I excited to see?
Who were you excited to see?
Yeah. That that you had.
But that is a really hard question because so many I mean, I like every one of them.
You know, and it is very, very important for me to state right now.
I did not choose all the bands. It was not my sole choice.
I had a booking committee.
So, yeah, when you when you go to your info at Davis Music Fest,
don't yell at me or try and entice me particularly because it's not it's not my my show.
You know, it's not Danny's Music Festival. It's Davis Music Festival.
So, you know, there is a booking committee and but, you know,
it's hard to say who I'm excited to see or who I was who was going into it.
But the Blank Tapes are a really cool band from San Francisco.
And they were I was surprised at how fast they responded that, yeah, they wanted to play.
Musical Cheris is from Sacramento and gaining some a lot of headway
as far as outside of the area.
Truth and Salvage Company were they supported the Black Crows all of 2009.
So it was nice that they were available.
It's right in the same type of style. Some of the other bands,
you know, a lot of my bands I've seen a lot like G Green and I'm excited about having at the festival.
Yeah. And then, you know, locally, Miss Lonely Hearts or Blast, West Nile Ramblers.
I just saw them the other night. Yeah. At the Art Walk.
Oh, yeah. Friday. They were good. Good. So, yeah, it's a.
And it's a tough question. I don't want you to choose favorites. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you have any other one? Just to say is Uncle Tony was nice to have them because their high school band.
And they did really well at the Jammies. And I think if the Jammies wasn't, you know,
it's heavily on popularity, I think they probably would have won.
But that was nice that they're that they're here.
It's another aspect of the community. You know, you can you're able to pull and,
you know, highlight people that are young and just starting right now and who may have,
you know, really have something to gain from from being put in a festival like this.
Yeah. If not just for their own confidence and their own creative outlet.
Right. Just to feel good about doing something like that.
Who are you? Do you have any sort of fantasy for, say, next year?
Do you have any say, you know, I really like to have Tom Waits?
No, I could just put a phone call into Tom Waits. Yeah. No, I don't.
I don't yet. It's too, you know, a lot of it is really.
But yeah, but it's also timing on on album releases and their existing tours.
Because let's face it, you know, Tom Waits would have to be literally at a barbecue that day
and and out of the goodness of his heart, decided he wanted to play because,
you know, we wouldn't and we that's that's probably not going to happen for quite a while.
We live too far away from here. Yeah.
So I think it would be interesting.
I think, you know, it would be really fun band to have at some point.
If we did have Central Park would be cake. Yeah.
Sacramento fun. You know, they're selling out, you know, the Fillmore multiple nights in a row.
So having them play would be fun.
And beyond that, I don't know.
Well, we'll see. Like I said, it depends on showrunners,
who's who's willing to take sort of these roles and then what albums are coming out and who's on tour as it is.
Yeah. So as a sort of, I guess, a logistical part of, say, next year's show or things.
Do you have things in mind as far as, you know, having a website or a contact for bands to from this point on say, hey, you know,
oh, we want to we're interested.
Again, I think that info at Davis Music Fest dot com is still the best place for that volunteers or bands and just,
you know, send your links if you want.
And people will sort sort through it.
And you said Facebook Facebook page is good. Yeah.
Facebook rather not have people just post their links to their bands on the wall because that's yeah, it starts to get cluttered.
If you're interested in being involved in the festival, say maybe next year.
Right. Then I would still I think an email is the best approach.
And then or, you know, we have a blog.
So Davis Music Fest dot com, I guess people could post on there, too, you know,
and in the comments section under last lineup or something.
But by the way, it was on the top of my head.
Shane and the Bulldog was another awesome.
That was great having them contribute this year.
Really nice guys. And their album is solid.
So I was happy that they are on board as well.
Where are they from here? They are from.
Yeah. And and that's definitely an album people should check out.
What is their style? I didn't catch them.
It's. That's a good question. I'm horrible at that.
I know. And I hate when people. Yeah. Yeah.
I would just say they're just indie folk rock, I guess.
Five and four piece. They four the other night.
Five. Yeah, I think so sort of the bass drums guitar.
Maybe you keep order. Yeah. Yeah. I think four. Yeah.
So I don't know. I just I like their album a lot.
So I was I was excited that they were playing.
Now, they just had one album out. Yeah.
Once their self-titled album. Yeah, I think they may have had some earlier releases.
But, you know, and the other thing to talk about with as far as growth.
So KDRT awesome support.
KDVS had a few DJs. I would really like to consider having them manage a venue.
So you say this is the K this is the KDRT stage or this is the KDVS stage.
And let those guys because they, you know, they're in tune with what's
maybe what they're now really hot on their exact venue or their exact medium there.
Yep. I mean, you know, KDVS has their festival, the Operation Restore
Maximum Freedom Festival, Freedom Festival out at Plainfield Station.
And it's you know, it's KDVS bands.
So those bands are, you know, so and that's a great time.
And and but I think it's definitely attracts a niche music fan.
So it would be it'd be it'd be good to let them have a stage at a festival
like ours with a style that you can come and go because then people can swing
through and or or like I said, check them out beforehand on MySpace or whatever.
Whatever the MySpace is going to be in the down the road.
Yeah. Or Facebook or whatever happens to be.
Yeah. Might be different by next year.
There might be another social media site.
I don't know. Yeah.
What do you think about doing more than one day?
I think that's very interesting.
Doing more than one day. I think it's you know, it's definitely something to consider.
Yeah. I mean, a multiple day festival would be awesome.
Find it by next year. You might have a lot of bands.
Yeah. You know, I think, you know, about it.
I think, again, that the bands is not the hard part.
It's the logistics part.
And two days and overnight for people that are coming from out of town.
It means, you know, it means cleaning up between the night and the next day.
I don't know. It's a lot to consider.
Just sort of gets exponentially bigger.
Yeah. I would say that probably wouldn't be your two.
I would say it's probably going to be down the road.
But I would like to have.
More of a street type of a block off type of thing or or or Central Park again.
I think Central Park is going to is going to be huge.
Privacy screenings and beer garden and, you know, bathrooms inside
and two stages facing opposite directions.
And people can spend some time in there and maybe have that shut down at an early hour
and then have people go into the sort of kick off the festival with.
A huge central park type thing and then have people be able to see this,
because there is there's a difference between an outside huge venue type of a festival
and a festival like ours or a South by Southwest,
where they're all venues that have a maximum capacity, some of them of 100 people.
Yeah. You know, or 200 people.
So, I mean, that's the thing.
You know, this this does sell out.
And I don't know the numbers yet.
I don't think we sold out this first year.
But but, you know, it's not the type of thing where we want droves and droves
of people to just come in and linger around.
You know, you want to you want we want everybody who has a wristband
to enjoy the show and have a have a good time and, you know, be able to get in and all that stuff.
Yeah. So, you know, give the make it worth everybody's wild.
Right. The venues and and, you know, make it worth their time and their space.
And and obviously yours.
You can hopefully do it next year and do it for subsequent years after that.
Yeah, it's great.
And the other thing is, you know,
the other thing we need help with is actually the actual nonprofit, because again,
this is not Danny's Music Festival.
It's actually put on by a nonprofit that I did start, but it's called Music Only Makes Sense.
And because we don't make any money.
So it's it's it's the nonprofit that's designed to all the proceeds go like this year goes
to the Davis Schools Arts Foundation. Right.
So we'll write them a check.
And that doesn't have to be Davis Schools Arts Foundation every year.
So it depends on, you know, where this ends up and who's who's involved.
And maybe some of it goes to the schools, arts foundation.
Maybe some goes to a Sacramento similar type of a who knows.
So did you approach the Davis Arts Foundation?
Yeah. Davis Schools Arts Foundation.
They come. Yeah. No, actually, I tried to do I was really actually the Davis Schools Foundation.
We're very helpful. We met with them first.
And we wanted to earmark the money specifically to music, art and performing arts programs.
And they said, you know, it's it's not the kind of thing you can do.
It's just the way their board is set up.
They you know, they take all school needs into consideration.
So, you know, part of the way this festival is working as as a nonprofit is you ask these guys to perform for a lot less than they probably would make elsewhere.
Yeah. So to entice them to do that, because you're going to raise money for a science class is not as easy as, you know, hey, it's going to benefit schools and, you know, the music and art performing arts departments that they probably benefited from when they were kids.
So it's a direct tie in. And the school's foundation folks said, oh, you need to talk to the DSAF, which I didn't even know existed, frankly.
So so so so we got in touch with them and they were they were thrilled to be the beneficiary.
And do you have any idea how they how they disperse the money as far as is it just I believe that they yeah, we've we've had conversations with them.
It's mainly on equipment and staff and, you know, class classes that they offer.
Maybe. Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, how we got into this whole my my 10 year old Maddie's over there sitting there and she's, you know, she's in Willett Elementary and we get asked every year to, you know, kick in money before the schools because the states broke and programs are.
As parents. As parents, you have you're asked a lot, not only money, but also time.
And so this year I didn't I wasn't in any of their classrooms doing anything volunteer wise. So I thought, well, maybe I can focus efforts on a festival that raises money for the same for the schools.
So that's that was another sort of driver. But, yeah, I mean, if you're a parent in town, you know, you're getting hit up for wrapping paper and everything else to, you know, because they're budget.
Yeah, it's yeah, they're they're they're having a tough time.
So if this can get big and be a way to sustain music programs, because you've got to think those are elective courses, right?
Those are yes. Those are the ones that are most jeopardy. Those are the ones that are getting cut. Right. The quickest.
Yeah. And they know it's volunteer teachers and, you know, it's hand me down equipment and it's all that stuff.
So, yeah, that's there's definitely a need.
So and being a Davis resident and a parent, obviously, you realize how many opportunities and outlets there are for children and for young kids to get involved in activities,
whether it's sports or or music, you know, whether it's in in school music or at the Arts Council.
Yeah. It's really important to, you know, to drive that home, that if you have a festival, if you're doing some sort of benefit.
That people are aware and they know why they're doing it. It just makes it that much more community based.
You know, just the purpose. It's a nice, feel good rapper on a fun time. You're absolutely right.
Yeah, I know that was that was and the Davis Art Center is another area that we want to build on.
And, you know, like you said, what about music and art festival?
And that's it's another consideration, but it's a whole nother.
I don't know that much about art. So yeah. But I think, you know, a lot there is a lot of crossover of artists that, you know, like like music and like a lot of the music that we're sort of having showcase their talents at this thing.
And I think it's you know, they're out of all the any festival you could probably think of that has been around for a while.
It probably has changed and morphed into. Yeah. Into something other than just what it started out as.
Right. You know, I mean, or it's it's a music festival that's gone on for a number of years and then maybe somebody else has started a satellite festival that happens the same time.
And, you know, you don't necessarily have to run it, but somebody else may be having an art festival that weekend. Right. Right.
Yeah. And it ties into it altogether. Right. Ties into it. Yeah. That's that's a good point.
Well, that's great. It's great talking to you today. And congratulations on the success of this year's Davis Music Festival.
Hopefully next year will be even better. Hopefully just as successful, hopefully even more successful.
Like, again, it's a community. Sounds like it's a very strong community. Yeah. Organized and participants are, you know, everybody's here in Davis.
They want to go out and see music, hopefully with a good conscience, knowing that it's going to get back to the kids or just certain programs here in town, which is very key.
What would you like to say in finishing tonight? I think I guess I would just like to say thanks to everybody from the musicians, volunteers, the venue owners,
all the committee members, of course, and and the fans, music fans.
I mean, without people going out and actually caring still about live shows, they wouldn't, you know, have them.
Awesome. Thanks, Danny. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
All right. Well, that's another episode of In the Studio. I'm your host, Scott Laws, with Davis Music Festival founder, Danny Tomasello.
Thank you. And we'll see you next time.